1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a job management apparatus and method for managing a job which is processed in a peripheral apparatus, and to a control program used therewith.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, there are two methods for managing jobs in a network device. One uses the job MIB (Management Information Base) protocol in which SNMP/MIB (Simple Network Management Protocol/MIB) control is used, and the other one uses the IPP (Internet Printing Protocol). These protocols enable display of a list of jobs in a network device, control of jobs (e.g., job suspension and job deletion), etc.
In addition, an event is used in order to monitor a change in the status of a job for printing. When the status of the job changes, this event is reported from the network device to a job management apparatus.
Regarding the case of reporting the end of a job in which printing is performed by a user, there is a method in which a job management apparatus displays a dialog box or the like by using a job-status-change event received from a network device.
There is also a method in which a job end is determined by performing polling to periodically acquire a list of jobs and a corresponding message is displayed for the user. However, in the above methods of the related art, on a network based on a WAN (wide area network) environment or in an environment in which a network traffic increases, a client application fails to detect a job-status-change event representing the end of a print job, so that the user is unable to accurately know the end of printing. Also, in an environment in which, even if a printer, which is an example of a peripheral apparatus, reports a job-status change on a timely basis, it is not ensured that the job-status change is reported to a client, a problem occurs in that the job status cannot be accurately found in real time.
In addition, since, in a high speed printer, a print job finishes in a short time, it is difficult for a client application to perform polling to monitor a job. Therefore, it is impossible to report a printing end to a user.